The Icing on Top of the Cake
by welcometonerdworld
Summary: Modern AU Jily/Marauders: In which there is no war, Lily is a Muggle, and the Marauders set up a bakery. Cover art by viria.


"This is it, boys. Are you ready?" James stands at the front of the bakery, arms spread wide.

"As I'll ever be." Remus heaves a sigh.

"No." Peter bites his lip.

"Shit. Why are we doing this?"

James hits Sirius round the back of the head. "Because we're going to run a business, goddamnit. And this is going to be the best bakery ever."

"Sure, Prongs. Sure."

* * *

><p>"Fuck, Sirius! How many times have I told you not to touch the flour?"<p>

A powdery white dog pouts mournfully at his friend from the floor, whilst Remus runs a sticky hand through his hair. It is day one in the bakery, and already they've made a mess.

James comes jogging into the kitchen. "Sirius? Do you have those pastries for the display or –" He sees Sirius on the floor and groans, "Mate. Didn't I tell you that Moony would hex your balls off if you didn't hurry the hell up?"

Sirius whimpers and transforms. Standing in his human form, he mutters an apology and sets about cleaning. Remus rolls his eyes and yells for Peter to hurry up and clean the damn baking tray – he _knew _they were going to need more than five – and James goes back into the shop, humming on his way.

The door bell jingles and Peter almost squeals with excitement. Sirius grins, "First customer of the day!" and sticks his head into the shop to see James' reaction.

A girl, probably about the same age as the boys has just entered the shop, smiling. She's wearing a black dress with decorative flowers all over it that stops just above her knees and James has to blink a few times before he can speak.

"Hello!" he says brightly, "Welcome to Mooncakes, what can I get you today?"

The girl smiles a little and replies, "Nice place. You're new, right? Oh, I'd like two of these, please." She points to the éclairs that sit in the display and James grins.

"Yeah, first day. And good choice," he says, taking two of them and placing them into a paper bag, "These are great."

"You're the tester, I suppose?" She smiles.

"Of course. All food stuffs are tried and tested by yours truly." He hands the bag over, "That'll be one ninety-nine, please."

She hands a few coins over and turns. James watches her open the door, but just before she leaves, he calls out, "What's your name?"

She looks at him, "Wouldn't you like to know. Bye, James!"

She leaves, and James gapes at her as she walks down the road outside. Then there is a tap on his shoulder. Sirius is standing behind him, apron adorned and smirking. "Someone's got a little crush, eh?"

James shakes his head in disbelief. "I don't understand," he mutters, staring in wonder out of the window. "How did she know my name?"

There's a pause in which Sirius' shoulders shake and he tries not to laugh at his friend. Then, "You've got a nametag, mate."

"Oh."

* * *

><p>James does not see the mysterious girl in the flowery dress for another week. It's been a mixed one – they had too many customers on one day, and too little on another. Sirius complains that he doesn't like all the early mornings, but generally, everything's fine.<p>

It's Peter's shift when the girl next comes in and she's not smiling. His welcoming tone is ignored by her, and instead of being polite, she almost snaps for a doughnut. Of course, this is followed by an apology, one that Peter accepts, but there are other customers in the bakery. The girl leaves and Peter soon forgets to tell James that a red headed girl had come in at all.

Another day sees Sirius having some number issues with the taxes and Remus has to close the kitchen to help him. They sort it out, but it dents their morale. This whole running a business thing is harder than it looks.

It is a fortnight later when the girl comes back, but she isn't alone. She brings another girl, who shakes James' hand over the counter and asks, "Are your pastries really as good as Lily says? She hasn't shut up about this place for a week."

James grins at Lily, who blushes fuchsia, nudging her friend whilst she mutters about exaggeration.

"Lily, huh?" James smirks, and she nods. "Nice name. And you are?"

"Marlene. Now could you please hand over some croissants?"

James gives her a bag, and on it he writes "Lily + Marlene" with a smiley face. He doesn't know it, but Lily keeps the bag.

Soon, a routine is developed. Lily comes in every Monday morning for breakfast, and James swaps shifts with Peter so he can talk to her. She comes in again on Friday afternoons and Sunday mornings, usually with Marlene, who has declared Remus' pain au chocolats as God's gift to the world.

James gains a habit of writing things on Lily's paper bags. Random smiley faces and stick figures when she's in a bad mood or a sentence like "You look great!" or "This bagel loves you." He even writes his phone number in icing on a doughnut one time, and Lily complains that she can't eat it now until she goes home to get her phone.

He learns her order. She likes a cinnamon pretzel on a Monday, a bagel on a Friday, and a fresh baguette on a Saturday, for lunch. She'll come in for random things every once in a while, and James insists that her cupcakes have to be the best.

He picks up random things about her – that she's two months older than him, she's done A levels in English, Art and History, her surname is Evans, and she has an older sister that she doesn't get on with (who, funnily enough, runs a bakery of her own. But that's a story for another day.). She's on a gap year, he discovers, as a cover for the fact that she doesn't know what she wants to do at all.

"That's okay," he says, "The boys and I had the idea for the bakery whilst we were smashed."

She demands to meet these enigmatic boys and James drags Sirius from his endless telephone calls to see Lily, as Remus can't escape his icing.

"Oh, so this is the mysterious flower girl!" he beams, "Sirius Black at your service."

She raises an eyebrow. "Mysterious flower girl?" she repeats.

"You were wearing a flowery dress when you first came in," James mumbles, and she smiles.

"I remember." She turns back to Sirius, "Nice to meet you, finally. I've heard a lot about you."

"All good things, I hope," he nudges James, "I am the star in our quartet, of course."

"Naturally." She laughs.

She does eventually meet Remus too, who is pronounced as nicer than James and Sirius by Lily, and definitely her favourite Marauder. James sulks about this for a good ten minutes, until Lily tells him she's kidding.

"Why 'Marauders'?" She asks one day, whilst nibbling on a cupcake.

"We were trouble makers at school," James laughs, "Still are, I suppose."

"Tell me a story," she asks, and James starts on a wild tale of mischief making – minus the map and cloak, of course...

* * *

><p>It's been three months in the bakery when disaster strikes. The boys are mucking around, Sirius is flicking icing at Peter, who's in his rat form, and James has fallen face first into a pile of dough. Remus shakes his head from his seat in the corner as he sips his tea and reads a recipe book.<p>

Yes, it's just a normal day until a customer enters, unaware that the boys are on a break. Later, Sirius yells about the stupidity of the customer, "The sign said we were closed, right?" but Remus just shakes his head.

"How would you react if the first thing you saw when you went into a bakery was a rat sitting in the frosting?"

As one would expect, it all goes downhill from there. An inspector has to come to the bakery and they are closed for two weeks for cleaning. Remus is angry with Sirius, who is angry with Peter, who is angry with James because apparently, he started it.

To put the proverbial cherry on the top of the cupcake, Lily isn't replying to James' texts.

He messages her three times. Once, to explain about the hygiene situation. Then again to say that they'll be closed for a while. A third time with a concerned, "You alright, Evans?" But Lily doesn't reply, and James is nervous.

The day before they are set to reopen, he tells the boys.

"Maybe she thinks we _do _have a hygiene problem?" says Remus, from his comfy seat with book.

"Maybe she's sick of us." Sirius suggests, picking at some cookies.

"Maybe _she's_ sick." Peter says, nibbling at a chocolate biscotti.

This doesn't help anyone, of course, and the boys drift into uneasy sleep in the shop downstairs, dreaming of angry redheads and sugar rats.

* * *

><p>"Fuck!" Remus wakes up first, with a jolt that sends his empty mug crashing to the ground. "Everybody get up!"<p>

"Wha's goin' on?" Peter mumbles from his position on the floor, arm around a biscuit tin. Remus picks it up and places it on the counter.

"We're supposed to be opening shop in twenty minutes!"

Peter blinks and sits up, wiping the drool on his chin away, "What?"

"Yes, twenty minutes! Padfoot, up!" he kicks Sirius in the shin. He groans and rolls over.

Remus sends a jet of freezing water at Sirius, who yelps loudly and whips out his wand, deflecting it. "I'm up, I'm up! Where's Prongs?"

They find James on the floor by the shop door, muttering in his slumber about hexes and bread and Lily. Sirius wakes him up and the boys start to panic. They have fifteen minutes until the inspector arrives for their final check.

The four of them set into a panic. James takes charge and orders Remus to clean the shards of his broken mug up, the counters and the floor. Sirius takes the shop front and James the cashier. Peter sets to work on the fridge and pantry, vanishing old goods with his wand and casting cleaning charms left right and centre.

Finally, they are done. Sirius collapses into a chair and Peter stands nervously against the wall whilst Remus dons his apron and gloves. James puts on his uniform – a ridiculous get up that he hardly ever wears – and they wait for the inspector.

"This is it, boys." The inspector walks down the road and James speaks. "Are you ready?"

* * *

><p>It turns out that they had nothing to worry about, really. With Remus and Peter's meticulous cleaning, James' flattery and Sirius' in-depth and elaborated explanation of how they solved the rat issue, the Mooncakes bakery passes the test with a gorgeous five out of five, and a certificate is issued to them which James proudly sticks in the front window.<p>

And so everything returns to normal – well, nearly everything. The customers come flooding back in and business goes steady, but there is no reply from Lily, even after James has sent her another three texts.

It is a Thursday, strangely enough, when Marlene arrives with a Muggle newspaper jammed under her arm and a strong urge to eat all the cupcakes in the shop.

Sirius is at the cashier, and he jumps up from his seat. "McKinnon! Long time no see, huh?"

"No time to chat," she says, "Get James."

Sirius does as he's told and soon James has appeared with a frown on his face and sugar on his hands. "Marlene? Where's –"

"Lily's mum died, James."

He blinks. "Fuck."

* * *

><p>The next time they see Lily, it's not at the bakery. It's at the local pub. The boys are celebrating five months success (ish) when James spots her at the bar, downing a drink as she slumps on her stool.<p>

The boys nod when James says he's going to go over and talk to her, and he stands, grabbing his drink and walking over. It takes her a minute to realise that someone's next to her, and she blinks a few times in surprise.

"James." Her voice is shaky.

"Lily." he takes the seat next to her. "Listen, I'm –"

"I –" They speak at the same time.

"You go first," she says.

"I'm sorry for your loss," and the words taste bitter in his mouth. Yes, they are friends (he thinks), but they've only known each other for a few months and he hasn't seen her in weeks. But what else can he say?

"Thank you."

"What were you going to say?" He asks.

"I..." her voice chokes and she sips her drink. "I missed you lot, you know?"

"We missed you too. We really did."

He wonders if she knows that he missed her the most. He doubts it.

* * *

><p>Slowly, they grow back together. Lily starts to pop in at the usual times again; James stands ready with her order, eager to make conversation. She opens up. She tells him about her parents, how her dad died when she was sixteen and her mum's death was expected.<p>

"Cancer," she says quietly. "It was always the damn cancer."

He gives her a cupcake for free on her way out, and she hugs him.

He's pretty sure that's the first time they've ever touched.

Somehow, Lily becomes almost a part of the bakery. It's not even like she's always in there, but when she's not, it's not right to the boys. She's always greeted by James, talked to by Sirius, given food to by Remus and seen out by Peter.

It's normal for her to be there, and the boys start to count her in as part of them.

It's because of this that it's really no surprise when Remus invites her to The Marauders' After Hours Clean Up.

"You want me to clean for you?" she raises her eyebrows, "Fat chance, Remus."

"No," says Peter, "It's a tradition! After we close, we eat all the leftovers and have a party whilst we clean."

"Interesting," says Lily.

When the shop closes that evening, the boys set about introducing her to the kitchen. Sirius makes a feeble attempt at distracting Lily whilst Remus hides his wand, and James tells her all about the different types of cookies that they make.

Sirius turns the music on to some ridiculous radio station and James takes Lily's hand, twirling her about and she laughs as Remus tells Peter off for nicking all the chocolate biscotti (and then eats it himself).

Lily swings James' hands around her waist and he has to hide the gulp that he takes, because Sirius is taking pictures with his bloody camera and laughing at James' reaction. James smirks at the camera and pulls Lily closer, pronouncing that she is the best dancer he's ever seen – sarcastically, of course, because Lily can't dance at all. She kicks him in the shin and steals his bagel.

Lily tries to come to as many of these so-called clean ups after that. Remus calls the Saturday ones The Marauders plus Lily's After Hours Clean Up and sometimes puts Marlene in there too.

James' favourite is the night where he and Peter find Sirius snogging Marlene in the pantry.

"Am I going to have to call the hygiene inspector again?" He asks, eyebrows wiggling, "I hardly think that this is the right place to be kissing, don't you agree?"

* * *

><p>"I need a job."<p>

It is a Friday afternoon, two months after Lily's mum died and she marches into the bakery, and slumps into one of the chairs at the counter.

Sirius looks surprised. "I thought you had one waitressing?"

"They sacked me today."

James comes walking in from the kitchen, cupcake in hand. "For you, Lily dear!" he says dramatically, and hands over the cupcake that is piled with white icing and silver glitter.

She allows a small smile, "Thanks, James."

He frowns. "What's wrong?"

"Lily was sacked."

"Why?" asks James.

Lily sighs. "There was this customer who kept trying to grope at my arse, and I blew up at him. It wasn't pretty."

"Well, quite right!" says James, "No one should be groping at your arse. Unless, of course, you wanted him to."

Lily snorts, "Of course I didn't. Anyway, the manager never liked me. This was just his excuse to get rid of me." She looks down at the cupcake in her hand mournfully.

Sirius looks at James. "Do you think we –"

"I dunno, what if –" Lily looks up, questioning what the hell they're on about.

"Maybe?" Sirius ignores Lily.

"Might as well. Wait here, Lily." James says, and he walks into the kitchen.

"Won't be a minute!" Sirius shouts, and follows him.

Lily bites into her cupcake. "Boys," she mumbles.

Five minutes later, all four of them are standing in front of her.

"Lily," says Remus seriously, "We have a proposition for you."

"Right."

"Do you need a job?"

"Yes."

"Do you like the bakery?" Sirius asks.

"No, Sirius," she says sarcastically, "I just come for your good looks."

"I wouldn't be surprised," he mutters to James, who elbows him in the ribs.

"Okay," says James, "We're going to give you a test..."

* * *

><p>"You're joking," she says flatly. The five of them are seated in the kitchen, and Lily wants to laugh. "I have to pass a test to be able to work here? What about a CV? I have one of those."<p>

"Yes!" says James, "Listen, as much as we love you –" He tries not to blush, "We don't know if you can cook, let alone cook under pressure."

Lily sighs. "Fair enough," she says, "Where do I start?"

"Right," Remus claps his hands together, "We'll start with something easy, yeah?"

* * *

><p>It is ten in the evening when Remus tells Lily that she's reached the last part of her test.<p>

"There's another part?" she says incredulously.

"Yes. It's the decoration test."

"You've got to be kidding me."

Peter yawns and brings out a massive un-iced cake on a tray. He plops it down in front of Lily.

"Right," he begins, "As Head Decorator, I think that it's important that you're able to have an artistic flair with this sort of thing, see? So we'll give you a theme, and then you ice. James?"

"What?" he jumps, rubbing his eyes, "Oh, right. Lily, your theme is, um, winter."

"Go."

* * *

><p>"Bloody <em>hell<em>."

"Merlin's fucking balls."

"Sodding fuck."

"How did you...?"

The four boys stand in disbelief, grouped around the cake. Lily stands smugly by the cake, smirking with an empty icing bag in hand.

"I am an art student, you know."

Remus shakes his head, laughing, "Yeah, I think we get it now."

"Definitely."

James clears his throat. "Lily Evans, I hereby pronounce you as Secondary Decorator at Mooncakes. Also, occasional cashier and baker."

* * *

><p>Lily settles in quickly to her new job. Peter teaches her a ton of icing techniques, Remus teaches her about baking temperatures and timings. She helps James at the cashier and Sirius with his numbers – who knew that they were better at Maths in Muggle schools?<p>

Having Lily around is always a good thing for the boys, but there is still the slight problem of Lily being a Muggle. They're constantly having to cover up their little slips about Quidditch, Remus' furry little problem and the Marauder's Map, but they just about manage.

Until Sirius mentions Slytherin.

It's been three weeks of Lily working with them when he mentions that one of Peter's cakes looks ridiculously Slytherin with the amount of green icing on it, and Lily frowns.

"What did you say, Sirius?"

"Huh? Oh, I just meant that the cake's very green."

"Oh."

The next slip is by Peter, a day after. "Remember at Hogwarts, when...?"

"What did you say, Pete?"

"Uh, I just..."

James creates a terrible diversion by putting icing in Lily's hair, and a food fight ensues.

The third slip is James' fault. "God, your hair looks like Snape's used to, Sirius –"

"Eff off, Prongs!" An annoyed Sirius looks at his reflection in the oven door.

Lily's eyes grow wide and confused. "What did you just say?"

"Fuck off, James." says James, reiterating Sirius' words.

"No, James. Before that."

"Uh...we went to school with this guy and..."

"Did you say Snape?" Her voice goes very quiet.

"Well, yes." He ruffles his hair nervously and frowns at her.

"I –" She breathes in sharply. "I have to go."

* * *

><p>They don't hear from Lily for a week. The customers notice the change in the bakery. It doesn't seem as happy or bright as normal, and James almost cries when a little boy asks him about Lily.<p>

"Where's Lily today?" He chirps, "She always gives me the best cookies."

James runs a hand through his hair. "She's, err, not well. But I'll tell her you missed her."

The next day, Lily comes in. It's Peter's shift, and he gapes at her as she enters the bakery. Without saying anything, she marches past him and into the kitchen.

James is sitting down and helping Sirius put a cake on to a tray when he sees her. "Lily!" he shouts, standing, "Where have you – what have you –"

"Are you a wizard?" She asks quietly.

James gapes at her, then recovers, "I – what, what are you talking about?"

"Are you," she says slowly, a threatening tone coming into her voice, "A wizard? Tell me the truth, James Potter, or so help me I will –"

"Okay, Lily," Remus intervenes, "What leads you to that conclusion?"

She huffs, "I dunno, maybe it's the fact that you talked about Slytherin, and Hogwarts, and _my ex best friend_, who was, by the way, Severus Snape, and I can't believe you didn't tell me, for fuck's sake –!"

"What d'you mean, Snape was your best friend?" Sirius demands.

"Yes, he was! For a good seven years, until he cut it off because –"

"Lily, we're wizards."

"I get that now, thanks. But why," she says, slumping into a chair opposite James, "Didn't you tell me?"

"Statute of Secrecy," says James, "Not to mention you'd think I was off my rocker."

"Well, _Severus _told me when we were ten, so –"

"Hang on," says Remus, "You were friends with Snape at ten?"

"_Yes_," she says, "Haven't you been listening?"

They sit at the table and Lily tells them everything – how Petunia and her used to argue for no particular reason, how Snape became her best friend because of the arguing, how Snape told Lily about Hogwarts, how he went and left Lily behind.

"He cut it off in fifth year," she says, "When he came back from school. He said we couldn't be friends because I had –" She breaks off and the boys are horrified to see that there are tears pooling in her eyes, "Dirty blood. Because I'm a Muggle. So I never forgave him."

"But that doesn't explain why you haven't been here for a week," says Sirius, frowning, although there's a look in his eyes that tells her that he's sorry.

"Because I thought you might be like him," she sighs, "That you might not want a dirty Muggle like me around."

James seizes her hands suddenly, and grips them in a vice-like hold. "Listen to me, Lily," he says quietly but urgently, "We love you, okay? All four of us, and you don't have dirty blood. No one does. Please don't ever say that again, alright?"

She nods and he kisses her forehead.

"I knew Snape was in with _that_ lot," says Sirius that night, after Lily's gone home, "But I never knew he'd be that bad."

"None of us did," sighs Remus, "But at least she knows about us."

"A lot less explaining to do, that's for sure." says Peter.

* * *

><p>But Peter soon finds out that he was wrong. Lily's newfound knowledge about the boys sends her on some sort of curiosity rampage, and it seems that she'll never stop asking questions.<p>

"Who was Merlin, really?"

"What is Quidditch, anyway?"

"House elves? What is this, slavery in the eighteen hundreds?"

"What kind of a name is Dumbledore?"

And so on. The boys don't mind though, and somehow Lily learns more in a month than she's ever done before about the Wizarding world. They even tell her about what Remus' furry little problem really is, and about being Animagi – after all, she didn't judge them for being wizards. It astounds her, all the magic, and what's even better is the fact that they can use it around her now.

This, of course, means that there's a lot less time spent on cleaning, and a lot more time spent on messing the bakery up.

"Food fight!" yells Sirius one day, and James is too eager to reciprocate in some fresh dough to the head, which he promptly trips on and soars away, crashing into the levitated cakes.

They accidently cause World War Three when Peter knocks Remus' cup of tea on the floor, resulting in a whirlwind of flour being blown into the air, most of which lands on James' glasses.

"I'm blind, Lily!" he yells, "Help!"

She giggles and something gooey lands in his hair. Sirius barks out a laugh when James realises that it's egg and goes sprinting after Lily, who's gone hysterical and is hiding behind Remus' chair.

"I'm going to kill you, Evans!" he growls, and she jumps aside as he pounces, slipping and falling onto the ground. She lies there, laughing, until she sees that James has a snowball sized chunk of dough in his hands that is probably going to land in her hair within the next five seconds.

Luckily, Remus is on her side. He sends some sort of hex at James – Lily doesn't know what it is but she doesn't really care, because the next thing she knows, James is lying on top of her, laughing about Tickling Jinxes.

He stops when he realises that her mouth is inches from his. "Hi, Lily," he says, smiling. He smells of cinnamon and fresh bread and something else that's undefinable. Lily blushes.

"Hi, James."

They lock eyes for a few seconds until, "Oi, lovebirds!" is yelled from across the kitchen, and James has to cast _Impedimenta_ to stop the giant bowl of cake batter flying their way.

Post battle, Lily cleans herself up and wonders just how exactly she's managed to develop a crush on James Potter.

* * *

><p>"Happy first birthday, Mooncakes!" Lily sings as she comes in on a Tuesday morning. She laughs at the state of the place. There is a Happy Birthday banner hung over the door, bunting lopsidedly coming from the ceiling, and balloons everywhere she turns. The four boys are sitting in the kitchen with party hats on and all their uniforms, which Lily's never seen.<p>

"Did you get costumes, or something?" She laughs.

Sirius snorts, "These are the Mooncakes uniforms, Lily. We just never wear them."

"But this is a special occasion," says Remus, "So you've got one too."

He places a pile of clothes on the table in front of Lily and she agrees to get changed.

When she reappears, the baking has begun and Sirius lets out an appreciative whistle from his mixing bowl. "Looking good, Evans!" He grins, and she snorts.

"Thanks, Sirius."

James turns and smiles at her, "It suits you, Lily."

"Thanks, Prongs."

He gapes after her as she saunters through to the front of the shop and takes her place at the cash register.

"Did she just call me –?"

"Yep, I think she did." Peter says.

"She's a proper Marauder now," says Remus, and the boys agree.

Lily, meanwhile, is dealing with the first customer of the day. "Hello!" she says brightly, "What can I get you?"

The customer, an old lady, speaks, "Is it someone's birthday?"

"Our bakery," Lily smiles, "One year today."

"Congratulations," says the woman, "I'll have a loaf of brown bread, please."

Lily calls James over and tells him the order. He smiles at her and says, "Right away, Evans," kisses her cheek and then jogs into the kitchen.

Lily turns back to the woman, flushing.

"You make a very nice couple," the woman observes, and Lily goes even redder.

"Oh, we're not – I mean, he isn't my –"

"My advice is go for it, my dear! He's very attractive."

Lily gapes at the customer as James arrives with the fresh loaf. He glances at Lily's expression, bemused, then says, "That'll be a pound, thanks. You alright, Lil?"

The customer pays and leaves with a smile and Lily sees her off with a small wave.

"I'm fine," she says, "Just thinking about something."

* * *

><p>The next morning, Lily arrives slightly late.<p>

"Sorry," she says, out of breath, "Missed the bus."

"Don't worry about it, Lil," says Sirius, yawning. He's already seated at the cash register, "We'll swap shifts."

She smiles, "Thanks, Padfoot." Lily walks through to the kitchen and spots James, with his hands wrist deep in some dough.

"Morning," he says, "It's Remus' time of the month and Wormy's looking after him."

"I gathered as much," she says, putting her bag on the floor and hopping up onto the counter, "How was yesterday, then?"

James yawns. "Alright. Went as expected, really. Took him to the forest behind my parents' house and let loose for a couple of hours." He shrugs.

She nods, "So, no exciting escapades?"

James shakes his head, "Nah, not really. Although we _did_ have an issue with a bird that nearly ate Peter..."

As he recounts his story, Lily finds herself more enamoured with the way his lips move and his eyes light up and how cute he looks when he's sleepy than the way that he heroically saved Peter from the clutches of a random owl.

"James?" she says after a minute.

"Yeah?" he pauses in his story.

"Shut up."

Without a moment's hesitation, she seizes the front of his apron and pulls him to her. His lips catch hers in a kiss which she deepens and she moves closer, ignoring the way that his hands have pulled out of the dough and are now on her hips, making her top smell like yeast. She tilts her head and he kisses her harder, until they are interrupted by a small cough.

Sirius is standing in the doorway, smirk on his face and nearly laughing, "Finally," he says, "What the hell took you so long?"

Lily says that it's because James was too scared to kiss her first, but James claims that he was waiting for "the right moment". They tell Remus, who says, "About damn time," and Peter, who desperately wants to make a cake to celebrate.

Lily doesn't think they need one though. "We run a bloody bakery," she says, "How many more cakes do you need?"

Sirius laughs. "Rule number one of running a bakery, Evans. You can never have too many cakes."

"Or too much PDA in the kitchen," James says, kissing her neck.

Remus snorts. "I think we're going have to make a rule against that."

* * *

><p>"This is it, boys." James pauses for a second and looks at Lily. "And girl. Are you ready?" The five of them are stood at the front of a large building, and James is giving one of his usual motivational speeches.<p>

"Of course, love," Lily replies, and he pecks her on the cheek, grinning at the way it still reddens slightly.

"I'm ready." says Remus, smiling.

"Mooncakes is moving up in the world!" Peter claps his hands together and Sirius ruffles his hair.

"I think we're all ready, Prongs. Bring on the new bakery!"

James cuts the ribbon at the front of the new shop and kisses Lily again. She grins at him and laughs as the boys cheer. Lily leads them in and takes James' hand, and he is inexpressibly glad that they did open up in Cokeworth of all places, because he wouldn't have met Lily if they hadn't, and at the end of the day, she is the icing on top of their cake. She makes the bakery what it is, and the boys wouldn't have it any other way.


End file.
